Five Minutes And You’re Done, Dude

You’re on your own: Women only sympathise for 5 minutes when their partners get the cold.

Most men know better than to expect much sympathy from their partner when they catch a cold.

In fact, a woman’s patience with a sniffling chap tends to run out in a mere five minutes, a survey claims.

Wives and girlfriends freely admit that they have little time for their partner’s suffering after the cold bug strikes.

But when it is the woman who is feeling below par, a man will not only mop her brow but will even take a day off to look after her, cook and clean.

The study, from the makers of the cold treatment Lemsip All In One, casts doubt on the traditional image of a female nursemaiding her husband or boyfriend through the coughs and sneezes of what has become known as man flu.

It found 52 per cent of women say they lose sympathy for their under-the-weather partner within five minutes of his starting to complain.

And 18 per cent of women don’t even last that long, admitting they start off unsympathetic and continue from there.

By contrast 70 per cent of men claim to be sympathetic to a partner with a cold.

Sixty per cent claim they will do the housework for her and 64 per cent will cook her dinner.

Lemsip Max All In One surveyed 1,300 adults to launch a product it claims works within five minutes.

It found only 19 per cent of women have taken a day off to look after a man while 37 of men have done the same for their wife or girlfriend.

Some 29 per cent of women take one look at a partner with a cold and think: ‘He’s going to be grumpy all day’ while 28 per cent just think: ‘Hurry up and get better.’

Men present themselves as saintlike in comparison with 48 per cent claiming their first thought is: ‘Poor thing, how horrible for her’ when their partner is not very well.

There is clearly a difference in perception between the sexes, however, with only 13 per cent of the females surveyed reckoning their partners looked after them when they were ill.

Marketing director Hanna Nowak said: ‘The original aim of the research was to assess the usual stereotype of just how unsympathetic men can be but the results have surprised us, with men being more sympathetic than we expected.

‘This may be because they are hoping for payment in kind when they are ill or they want their partner back on her feet as soon as possible and running the household.’

And, ladies, if five minutes total is all you are getting you have bigger problems than I can solve. Me being married and all anyway.